You might be alright if it's only 2 teeth. You can count the amount of teeth on the sprocket and divide that from 360. For example, if you have 41 teeth then 360/41 = 8 degrees per tooth. So for 2 teeth, you've only moved the cam by 16 degrees, which isn't a whole lot.

But actually, the reason i bought the outlander was because it's a non-interference engine from 2007-2009. So even if you broke the belt and it was completely off, you wouldn't damage anything. You're fine, just put it back together and drive.

 

What is the slip off and on method? doesn't sound good enough to set the tension of the new belt. If you can adjust the belt off and on like that it sounds like the tensioner is way too loose.


as said above your engine could be non-interference from 2007. If it is true, then your engine should be fine.


You always rotate the crank quite a few times to check the marks, and tension don't change after rotating it, before getting the confidence of cranking it.


Take off the cover and see how the marks look now.

 

Thanks for the quick replies. The slip on / slip off is where you do not move the cams or crank while removing the belt, and then replacing, literally slip off and put new one on, with the theory being that no movement = the same timing, then put the tensioner back on. But now I know the correct way. I've never owned a car long enough to need to do a belt, so this was my first time (not an excuse - my XLS is the perfect car for me and I am keeping it forever).

The marks are correct now and it will start but it promptly dies and I don't get any codes when checking. My theory is if I messed up a sensor being ham-fisted that it would set a code as every single thing on the car can practically set it's own code.

Oh and I also laid the tensioner on it's side so I need to re-bleed it and keep it upright.

Again, thank you

 

Just an fyi, I got my wife an 07 xls with 149k on it. Did the timing belt waterpump etc and I was surprised that the belt was still looking excellent (Unitta). The waterpump (Hitachi) also looked in great condition but still replaced them all.

I put on a gates belt and gmb waterpump with oem tensioners, hope they last as long as the oem components.

 

You might have flooded one of the cylinders when you tried to start it the first time. Or are you saying it runs great for a second or two, then dies??

Is it possible one of your sprockets or crank are 180 degrees off??

 

Is that 149,000 miles or km? Also, are you in a 4 seasons area? Thanks

 

That's miles and I live in South Carolina. From the carfax the car spent most of its life in FL and GA. It was in decent condition only major issue is both catalytic converters needs to be replaced and the a/c compressor sounds like it may need service soon. Other than that I got a good deal on it.

 

Just bought o7 outlander 182k and just changed original belt! Actually didn't look all to bad

 

Hello to everyone and I finally finished reassembling the left (forward) bank of the engine and replacing all consumables/fluids in the process. As was previously mentioned, the belt itself showed no cracking, no wear, no defects of any type. The spark plugs were remarkably clean for 100k miles too. While I had everything apart, I did apply some additional molybdenum to the throttle plates and spray cleaned anything that was non electronic. Since I had all new hoses and to facilitate easier removal of the wiring harness from the lower mounted engine sensors, I pulled the radiator and fans during the process. I managed to find a bunch of vinyl rivets online to replace any cracked pieces holding the plastic trim and under-plating. So now that everything is clean and back together, it's running smooth as can be, with a noticeable power increase (although city mileage still comes in around 20mpg).

THE 2007 HAS INTERFERENCE INTAKE VALVES ONLY. The mis-timed bank showed no damage to the exhaust valves and only showed marks on the cylinder heads at the divots where carbon build up had been chipped off. They were bent so badly that I had to use a lot of caution with different chisels and punches to bend them back. Then I could get a custom ground down spring compressor on the valve springs. Once reassembled, the valves were adjusted to .003" and cylinder #2 required adjusting again when the head was at operating temperature.

I've been on two road trips since and everything is still like new, so I am glad to have taken the time to carefully follow every step of the service manual (except for cleaning the hydraulic exhaust valve lift adjusters in diesel).

So cheers to everyone who chimed in with advice and personal experiences. It helped me tremendously to stay on task and to remain confident as the project went along. If there are any questions I'd be happy to explain.

Again, thanks.

 

I bought a 2007 Mitsubishi Outlander V6 3.0L AWD with 132,000
Miles on it. I tried to research the maintenance history of the car to see if / or when the timing belt was changes but only found records of recommended maintenance. I took the timing belt cover off and the belt looked very good and still had bold white print on it of the Mitsubishi belt part number on the belt and the edges also look good. Would the fact that the white Mitsubishi part number and label on the belt indicate that this belt has been replaced recently? I don't want to change the belt if it had already been done.